Re: CHAT: Galatians and Celts

At 5:57 pm +0200 6/4/00, BP Jonsson wrote:
>At 09:43 06.4.2000 -0600, dirk elzinga wrote:
>
>>As a child in Sunday School, I remember asking my teacher if the
>>Galatians were the Gauls. He didn't know.
>
>I suppose you know now!  In fact Galatoi is the regular Greek word for
>Celt, IIRC.
>(If I recall wrongly Ray will surely correct me on the spot! :-)
The word is 1st declension: Galatai

It was certainly used by Polybios very much to mean the same as Keltoi (see
below), but Aristotle used the phrase: Keltoi kai Galatai.

This seems to me to imply while some Greeks regarded Galatai & Keltoi as
interchangeable terms, others made a distinction; though I guess the latter
probably regarded them as related peoples.

A feminine singular, Galatissa (Celtic woman), is attested.  The adjective
is Galatikos.

Certainly in later times the term came to be used with particular reference
to those Celts who settled in Anatolia.

The only compound I know of formed from this word is:
Galatarkhe:s - President of the Council of Galatia.

Keltoi - is used by Herodotos, Xenophon and Polybios.
In Strabo we find it joining the 1st decl., i.e. Keltai - I guess under the
influence of Galatai.
The usual adjective is Keltikos, but Keltos is also found as an adjective
in verse.
Keltis (gen: Keltidis) - the land of the Celts or Gauls (Strabo, Arrianos)

Kelt(o)- is favored in compounds, e.g.
Keltibe:res - people of mixed Celtic & Iberian origins (Strabo).
Keltoligyes - people of mixed Celtic & Ligurian origins (Strabo).
Keltoskythes - people of mixed Celtic & Scythian origins (Strabo).

Ray.

=========================================
A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
=========================================